If Marvel Gets Spider-Man, It Won’t Be the Andrew Garfield Kind

We already heard this week how Marvel Studios and Sony have had discussions about working together to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Those talks reportedly fell through, but word has it that pressure from Sony Pictures’ parent company could mean that that dialogue could start up again -- and that the wallcrawler might yet meet up with the Avengers onscreen. And yet, if that does happen, it sounds as though Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield won’t be invited to the party.

This is all obviously very speculative, but the latest tidbit comes from Latino Review, whose sources now indicate that Marvel is not interested in giving creative control of Spider-Man to Sony or “honoring the contracts with Sony's Spider-Stars.” In other words, no Andrew Garfield. The site adds that the rumored Aunt May solo film and Female Character Spider-Man team-up movie were concepts that Marvel Studios “severely disliked.” Of course they did.

“IF the Marvel/Sony deal were to go forward,” says LR, “Andrew Garfield would no longer be Peter Parker and any baggage from existing films, [directors Sam] Raimi or [Marc] Webb, would be non-canonical.” Marvel wants a clean slate, apparently, and they are not interested in doing any more so-called “romance” movies but would rather “focus on the difficulties of being a teenager and a superhero with a romance side-story.” Neither is an origin story part of the plan, so a Marvel Spidey movie would reportedly pick up with Peter Parker already living his double life as a hero.

Additionally, these sources say that Spider-Man making his debut in Captain America: Civil War, which is one item that Sony and Marvel had discussed before their initial talks broke down, could still happen and would serve as Spider-Man’s introduction to the MCU. If this does take place, it would surely be in a small role or a cameo as the Civil War script is said to be pretty much locked. Marvel wouldn’t necessarily even need to cast the role at this juncture as they could just get a stuntman in a Spidey suit to shoot a short scene or two. (Though, of course, one of the reasons why the webhead was so important to the Civil War story in the comics was because of his secret identity.)

LR also notes here that Sony chief Amy Pascal had a major issue with Marvel’s wish to remove Garfield from the role, which is something that The Wall Street Journal also emphasized when they broke the Marvel/Sony story on Tuesday. But Pascal, who is in the midst of the Sony hacking scandal (the source of these original Spider-Man reports), is currently facing bigger problems than simple Spidey casting.

For now, it’s all wait and see as it’s clear that even Sony doesn’t have a solid plan for Spider-Man. But that could all change soon… Stay tuned for more as we have it.